Wawarsing flood buyouts under way

WAWARSING, N.Y. -- The announcement that seven contracts have been signed for the buyouts of homes impacted by leaks in New York City's Delaware Aqueduct was met on Wednesday with a mix of relief and resentment by property owners still waiting to complete their sales.

Fox Hill Road property owner Tommy Booth, who is in the second round of owners going through appraisals and assessments, expressed reserved optimism.

"They still have to do the geological survey and search on the title," he said. "So it's probably going to take some time. I won't know anything until the middle of January."

New York City will provide $5.5 million to qualified Wawarsing properties owners for repairs related to leaks from the Delaware Aqueduct and $7 million to construct a new water system for property in the affected area. That new system will not connect to the Napanoch Water District.

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A $3.7 million city program that matches a state contribution of $3.8 million will be used for property buyouts.

The state buyout program has come under fire, however, because it's based on property owners' incomes, while the city program has drawn objections because it's based on each property's distance from the aqueduct and because there is a 10 percent bonus if owners waive their right to a lawsuit.

Ulster County officials, who administer the programs, say there were 68 applicants for buyouts and that about 20 at a time are being processed.

Smith Road property owner Maria Smith is one of the first two property owners with a closing date for the buyout and will be moving to a house that is "high and dry" in Kerhonkson, she said. She and husband, Mike, agreed to take the 10 percent bonus from New York City but consider it far too little to make up for 10 years of problems.

"I think it's very sad that they would not take responsibility, and even when they did, it was just one game after the next," she said. "They kind of put a Band-Aid on it and said it would keep (property owners) quiet if we get them a filter or bottled water and just appaise them. Then to have to leave my home, where my kids grew up, I didn't want to have to move, but I can't live like this."

Booth said he may be willing to take the city buyout because of his age, 68, but still resents the way Wawarsing property owners where treated for decades by a bureaucracy that would not take responsibility for water coming from the leaking tunnel.

"I don't know why they let it go for 30-some years, but by doing, it they pretty much ruined this whole community," he said. "As far as (Ulster County) goes, they are doing the best job they can do with what they've got to work with."

Michael Rosselli, who owns property on Kagan Lane, is unhappy with county's handling of the program but he declined to say why because he expects to receive his buyout contract in a few weeks.

"I don't want to rock the boat, but I've got some things I would like to get off my chest, and I don't want to have them out there until I've got a check in my hand," Rosselli said. "DEP has handled buyouts before. There was no reason they couldn't be doing this themselves in my opinion."

Ulster County Emergency Management Director Art Snyder said efforts have been made to treat the applicants with understanding.

"We have tried to put a human face on it, and I think we've done everything we can to move through as expeditiously as possible," he said.

He noted, though, that legal requirements have slowed the process.

"We've been working on this for a year-and-a-half, and in that time, we've gone out with a request for proposals or a request for bids for title work, for environmental assessments, for demolition work and for the appraisals," Snyder said. "Each of those required contracts between the city of New York and state of New York. So that was all heavily front-end loaded, and once we got that done ... we're at the point where we were able to offer to enter into contracts with those property owners who have clean titles."

Editor's note: This story was modified 10:48 AM 12-6-12 to correct details of the appropriations for the various programs.